


somebody force me to care

by Anonymous



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, basically they're high school teachers, rival teachers au, the gang's all here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:34:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22537093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: in which they're high school teachers
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30
Collections: Anonymous





	somebody force me to care

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there!
> 
> This is my first time writing anything in Star Wars. I'm actually completely unqualified to write anything in this fandom, as the only movie in the entire franchise that I've watched is TROS. Nevertheless, I've fallen head-first into this ship, and I could not stop thinking about how perfect they are for one of my favorite fanfic tropes, aka the rival teachers one.
> 
> This is a WIP, so I'm just putting this first snippet up to get some feedback. Once I complete the story, I will update and this first part may change with editing (not sure yet if this will be multi-chap or a one-shot).
> 
> Please let me know what you think!

Rey walks into her classroom a week before school starts to find it half-deconstructed. She doesn’t register the scene before her for a few minutes, the sweat and August heat on her skin still in the midst of solidifying from the A/C (she always forgets, by the end of each summer, how freezing cold D’Qar High School is; comes in on Teacher Convocation in her ratty t-shirt from the shop instead of her usual bundle of layers; realizes—as she has every year in the past—that cryotherapy does not work).

And then she notices the blank bulletin boards, the rolled maps on the desks, the cardboard boxes holding the knick knacks from her travels, the fact that her walls are partially naked and currently being stripped by a—a _tall_ , very tall man, who’s in a crisp black suit and methodically tearing her Seven Wonders of the World poster off the wall like someone peeling clothes off a person. And that person is her classroom.

“What the fuck?” she blurts out. _Ah, shit_ , she thinks. _I have to fix my language before school starts._

The man whirls around in surprise, letting go of the poster, whose unaffixed side whirls around with him. The Taj Mahal smacks the back of his head. Rey would laugh, but she is currently rendered speechless by his height. He is— _even taller_ —from the front if that were possible, Rey having to bend her neck back a little to meet his eyes, which are set underneath a pair of dark eyebrows. He has a long nose and a pale face framed by wavy black hair. Everything about him seems strangely misplaced, every feature a bit of a caricature, but (if he weren’t currently frowning at her and taking apart her carefully constructed classroom) Rey could almost call him _attractive_ —look, she has a thing for tall men, alright—

“May I ask, _who are you_?” he says disdainfully, and wow _,_ his voice is impossibly low. He glances down at her grease-stained Corellia Auto Repair shirt and Rey crosses her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes at him.

“I think you should be the one answering that, seeing as you’re currently destroying _my_ classroom,” she retorts.

A brief look of embarrassment passes over his face, and then his mouth sets back in its downward curve. “Actually, this is my classroom now. So if you’ll excuse me,” he says, gesturing back at the poster behind him, “I have some work to finish. Clearly _._ ”

“Excuse me?” Rey asks, and any thoughts of attraction are gone as she marches across the room to stand in front of him. “Look mate, I don’t even know who you are, but you have no right to come into my classroom—which has been mine for the past four years, mind you—and start taking down all my things! That porcelain vase right there was a gift from someone I met in China and you can’t just—start boxing away all my things without a word! Didn’t your mother teach you any manners?”

“I apologize,” the man says with a suffering sigh. “But you should have started moving your stuff once you were notified of your classroom change. I need an adequate amount of time to properly set up my classroom and honestly, having to put your stuff away for you has already delayed me by an hour, so if anyone has a right to be angry it should actually be me.”

“Classroom change?” Rey scoffs. “This has been my classroom since I started working here.”

“It’s mine now. Check your email. Skywalker should have communicated about it with you. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if he forgot,” he adds under his breath.

Rey pulls out her phone with a disbelieving glare and refreshes her inbox. Sure enough, there is an email from the Social Studies department head, Luke Skywalker. Luke has been a mentor for Rey since she began working, hiring her right out of college and showing her the ropes of being a high-school teacher. _Asshole_ , she thinks, in response to the muttered barb against the older man.

She clicks on the email, infuriated that the man was right, and scans the text, which is a sheepish explanation that the new Government teacher would be taking her classroom and she would have to move to 2212.

“2212? That’s _next door_! Why can’t you just take that one?”

He stares at her. “Because I need a window in my classroom. And the projector is newer.”

“This is unbelievable,” Rey scoffs. She pushes her finger into his chest. “I don’t know what kind of privileged, rich childhood you had that makes you think you can get paid for being an asshole. Well, I can’t stop others here from accommodating your every whim, but _I_ sure as hell will not be. And if you’ll _deign_ to give up 30 minutes of your precious time, please allow _me_ to move out my stuff.”

***

“And then he just _stood there_ , tapping his foot and looking at his Rolex every five minutes!” a sweaty Rey fumes to Rose in the teacher’s lounge half an hour later.

Rose pats her back sympathetically as Rey slams her head down onto the table. “He sounds like a dick. But hey, at least you’re closer to my classroom now.”

Rey looks up, blowing wisps of hair from her face, her bun loosened from walking back and forth, transferring her things into her new classroom. “Yeah,” she says with a small smile. “There is that.”

Rose grins. “There’s my girl. We’ll conquer this year and privileged white males together. Now come on, we have Convocation to go to.”

***

By the time Rose and Rey slip into the auditorium, the proceedings have already started, so they make their way quietly through the darkened audience to where Finn has saved seats for them.

“Took you guys long enough,” he says in a pointed whisper, as they sidle down the row.

Rose flicks him on the shoulder as she sits down, but Rey ignores them, focusing in on Principal Organa’s speech and disappointed that she had to miss part of it. She’s always looked up the principal and the way she leads the school. And Rey wasn’t alone—the teachers and students alike all shared a mutual admiration for Leia Organa.

“I’d now like to introduce the newest member of the D’Qar faculty,” Principal Organa says now, gesturing at someone sitting in the front row of the auditorium.

The unmistakably tall silhouette of the jerk that had taken Rey’s classroom stands up and walks reluctantly onto the stage, wearing a look of deep discomfort.

“That’s him,” she whispers to Rose.

“What! Rey, you didn’t tell me he was _Kylo Ren._ ”

“Kylo Ren?” Rey replies, confused.

Up on stage, Organa continues, “After pursuing his career elsewhere, Mr. Ren has decided to return to DHS, and has graciously accepted a position in the Social Studies Department teaching Government.”

Rose starts whispering an explanation in Rey’s ear. “He used to teach here and everyone hated him. All the kids thought he was too strict, and he was basically just a huge, antisocial asshole.”

“Sounds like him,” Rey muses. “What happened to him?”

“He accepted a job offer at First Order Academy. I mean, he’s a jerk, but he knows his stuff—he went to Harvard and worked a few years in law and everything. So he went to teach over there, because they obviously could pay him a much higher salary. But that just made everyone here hate him more—and it broke Organa’s heart.”

“Organa? Why, because he defected to our rival school?”

“Not just that. He’s her son!”

“He’s _what_?”

“Yeah. I mean, no one ever talked about it much because there was some weird family drama but we all knew.”

“But—I mean—how,” Rey splutters. “I mean, she’s like that, and he’s like _that_. How can they even be related?”

Rose shrugs. “I don’t know, but it’s honestly crazy that he came back. I wonder why.”


End file.
